Notes about expected battery life

Battery life is a work in progress. The power saving software is in a very rudimentary state. At the moment 12h is about the most (note though a recent result of at least 21h, mostly in suspend, with multiple short wakeups, on the predecessor device GTA01). A week standby and 6 hours talk, 20 hours mp3 might be attainable when power saving software is complete.

Make sure your battery never discharges completely.

This is an issue because the internal charging circuitry can not be turned on until the FreeRunner has booted, and booting through USB power alone does not work.

What to do if your battery has become completely discharged

More tricks

Q: Does anyone know WHY it don't charge when it is off? My logic says that it is very important to have the option charge the battery when it is flat.

A: I can't give you a simple answer. Charging is controlled by the PCF50633
chip, based on configuration values that are written to it by u-boot,
Linux, and userspace programs. Some of these settings are preserved
across a power-cycle (the PCF50633 has a small backup battery that's
also used to keep the RTC running) so the behavior at startup depends on
the software that you used during your last session.

Another complication is that some Freerunners are capable of starting up
without a battery while others are not (possibly due to different
capacitor values on the internal power rails).

I can give a few hints:

The current (Sep. 2nd, 2008) u-boot has a bug that means it will not properly charge from the wall charger. Try a USB cable into a PC instead.

Try to boot into the NAND u-boot menu (hold power and then aux) and then select "power off". This may leave the device in a state were it will charge. Wait 15 minutes and then try to boot Linux.

Try booting through NOR u-boot instead (hold aux and then power) with either the wall charger or a 500mA USB connection, then try booting Linux.

If the device shuts off during one of the above attempts, let it sit for a few minutes and then try that same item once again

Compatible Replacement Batteries

Other known FreeRunner-compatible batteries include the BL-series (BL-4X, BL-5X) from Nokia, and their third-party equivalents.
These may not work to revive a device and may not report charge information.
It is probably a good idea to check that your battery is not greater than the stock battery's voltage of 3.7V (the above suggests that 4.5VDC should be fine) unless you know what you are doing.

Battery Model

Capacity (mAh)

Charge info reported

Notes

NOKIA BL-4

no

NOKIA BL-4C

750

NOKIA BL-5B

760/890

NOKIA BL-5C

950

no

NOKIA BL-6C

1070

no

USB charger

For information about USB battery chargers that can be used with the Neo FreeRunner see

Notes about expected battery life

Battery life is a work in progress. The power saving software is in a very rudimentary state. At the moment 12h is about the most (note though a recent result of at least 21h, mostly in suspend, with multiple short wakeups, on the predecessor device GTA01). A week standby and 6 hours talk, 20 hours mp3 might be attainable when power saving software is complete.

Make sure your battery never discharges completely.

This is an issue because the internal charging circuitry can not be turned on until the FreeRunner has booted, and booting through USB power alone does not work.

What to do if your battery has become completely discharged

Recharge the dead battery with an external stand-alone charger (compatible with the Nokia BL-5C battery)

Boot the FreeRunner with either a spare GTA01/GTA02 battery or a compatible battery, then plug in USB power and swap the dead battery into the FreeRunner while it's booted up and running.

Boot the FreeRunner with a 4.5VDC external power source (steady hand and great care involved), plug USB power, then insert the empty battery.

Charge the battery directly, see here, how I did that. (Not recommended)

The first option is probably the easiest and most sensible.

More tricks

Q: Does anyone know WHY it don't charge when it is off? My logic says that it is very important to have the option charge the battery when it is flat.

A: I can't give you a simple answer. Charging is controlled by the PCF50633
chip, based on configuration values that are written to it by u-boot,
Linux, and userspace programs. Some of these settings are preserved
across a power-cycle (the PCF50633 has a small backup battery that's
also used to keep the RTC running) so the behavior at startup depends on
the software that you used during your last session.

Another complication is that some Freerunners are capable of starting up
without a battery while others are not (possibly due to different
capacitor values on the internal power rails).

I can give a few hints:

The current (Sep. 2nd, 2008) u-boot has a bug that means it will not properly charge from the wall charger. Try a USB cable into a PC instead.

Try to boot into the NAND u-boot menu (hold power and then aux) and then select "power off". This may leave the device in a state were it will charge. Wait 15 minutes and then try to boot Linux.

Try booting through NOR u-boot instead (hold aux and then power) with either the wall charger or a 500mA USB connection, then try booting Linux.

If the device shuts off during one of the above attempts, let it sit for a few minutes and then try that same item once again

Compatible Replacement Batteries

Other known FreeRunner-compatible batteries include the BL-series (BL-4X, BL-5X) from Nokia, and their third-party equivalents.
These may not work to revive a device and may not report charge information.
It is probably a good idea to check that your battery is not greater than the stock battery's voltage of 3.7V (the above suggests that 4.5VDC should be fine) unless you know what you are doing.

Battery Model

Capacity (mAh)

Charge info reported

Notes

NOKIA BL-4

no

NOKIA BL-4C

750

NOKIA BL-5B

760/890

NOKIA BL-5C

950

no

NOKIA BL-6C

1070

no

USB charger

For information about USB battery chargers that can be used with the Neo FreeRunner see